January 13, 2008 in Sports

Porter will try for spot on bowling’s Team USA

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Cory Porter of Spokane, who would like to pursue a professional bowling career, will be in Las Vegas this week to take what he hopes is another step along that road when he competes in the Team USA tryouts.

Porter, who has put his college education on hold “to concentrate on bowling,” will be one of more than 100 men and women trying to land a spot on four-person teams for each gender. Team USA competes in six or seven international tournaments, Porter said. This is his first time trying out for the national team.

Porter, who bowls in three leagues locally and is carrying a 210 average, participated in a PBA qualifying tournament in Wenatchee in the fall and is being coached by former PBA pro Jim Frazier of Spokane.

Porter is one of two from Washington selected through an application process. Competition runs Tuesday through Friday.

Baseball

The Seattle Mariners Caravan, featuring new bullpen coach Norm Charlton and young pitchers Mark Lowe and Eric O’Flaherty of Walla Walla, along with the Mariner Moose, will be in Spokane on Thursday and Friday.

There will be an autograph/photo session in the Barbieri Student Center at Gonzaga Prep, 1224 E. Euclid, from 4:15-5:45 p.m. Thursday that is free and open to the public.

The caravan will also make stops at the Shriners Hospital for Children on Thursday and the Sacred Heart Get Well Tour on Friday. Those visits are not open to the public.

College scene

Jon Clift, a sophomore point guard on the Community College of Spokane’s men’s basketball team from Ferris, is the school’s Male Scholar-Athlete of the Month for December.

A two-year starter for the Sasquatch, Clift’s solid all-around play has been instrumental in CCS’s 15-1 start and No. 1 ranking in the NWAACC. He’s averaging just less than 10 points a game with 62 assists and 25 steals. He has a 3.63 grade-point average.

The female selection is Brandy Sonderland, a sophomore right-side hitter on the volleyball team from Kennewick. A first-team Eastern Region selection, she helped lead CCS to a fourth-place finish in the NWAACC tournament, leading the Sasquatch in hitting (.277) and kills (327). She has a 3.82 GPA.

•Sara Fairburn, a 2005 graduate of Northwest Christian and junior forward on the Simpson University women’s basketball team, passed the 1,000-point mark in her career in a 64-58 loss to William Jessup on Thursday.

Fairburn scored 19 points, giving her 1,006 in her career. She has a team-leading 17.56 average this season, which ranks her 30th nationally in NAIA Division II.

•Six area players are instrumental on the 12-1 Eastern Oregon men’s basketball team that is ranked third in NAIA Division II.

Kyle Janke, a 6-foot-6 senior from West Valley, is the Mountaineers’ No. 3 scorer with a 12.3 average while shooting 63 percent from the field, and leads the team with 10 blocked shots. Jeremy Templeton, a 5-10 junior from Ferris, is No. 4 at 11.0, hitting 21 of 45 3-pointers, and leads the team with 66 assists.

Others are Josh Landsverk, sophomore, Shadle Park, 7.3 scoring average; Nick Ambrose, freshman, Central Valley, 1.4; Beau Azadganian, freshman, Gonzaga Prep, 1.0; and Nate Bligh, freshman, Coeur d’Alene High, 0.3.

Skiing

Marshall Greene of Spokane, who is racing for XC Oregon, has qualified for his first World Cup cross-country races later this month in Canmore, Alberta.

Greene, a Lewis and Clark High graduate, qualified based on finishes in what is known as the Super Tour. He will compete in at least two sprint events.

“I’m definitely excited for the chance to race against the world’s best,” Greene is quoted as saying in a release announcing his selection.

Greene, who raced locally for the Selkirk Nordic Ski Education Foundation, had several top-five finishers in qualifiers and was eighth in the U.S. Championships last weekend in Michigan to secure his World Cup spot.

Soccer

Kellie Zakrzewski of Cheney, who plays for the Spokane Shadow ‘91 U-16 team, has been selected to the Washington team for the Region IV Olympic Development Program Championships this weekend in Phoenix.

Washington is one of nine teams trying to qualify for the national championships in March in Frisco, Texas.

Zakrzewski, a sophomore, was an All-Great Northern League first-team selection after scoring 32 goals with eight assists to lead Cheney to the State 2A quarterfinals and was an honorable mention all-state selection. She is also the leading scorer on her Shadow team.

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